- Emmanuel Macron was complimentary to Professor Didier Raoult this Wednesday, calling him "a great scientist".
- The head of state had already praised the action of the French infectious disease specialist during a surprise visit last week.
- The doctor remains strongly criticized today for his studies on the treatment of Covid-19
“A great scientist. In an interview with RFI this Wednesday, Emmanuel Macron was complimentary to Professor Didier Raoult. For several weeks now, the doctor has been just as much welcomed as criticized for his studies on the treatment of Covid-19.
The head of state asked that the Marseille-based specialist's biotherapy based on hydroxychloroquine "be tested" as soon as possible. "It is not a question of belief, it is a question of scientist. I am convinced that he is a great scientist, and I am passionate about what he says and what he explains, ”pointed out the President of the Republic. After a surprise visit last week to his Marseille institute, Emmanuel Macron again paid tribute to the infectious disease specialist. Why such interest?
“No track is overlooked” against the Covid-19
Emmanuel Macron said Monday evening during his televised address that all avenues of treatment for the virus will have to be studied. “There have been, I know, many debates in the country. All options are explored and our country is the one that has launched the most clinical trials in Europe. I wanted to understand each of the possible options myself, to make sure that everything was tried as soon as possible and with rigor […] No track is overlooked. "
An allusion to the controversies around the solutions advocated by the professor from Marseille. The French infectious disease specialist is at the center of a global debate on the use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine to fight the coronavirus. Emmanuel Macron thus intends to show that he remains attentive to this track, despite the withdrawal of Didier Raoult from his scientific council at the end of March.
I had the pleasure of welcoming the President of the Republic @EmmanuelMacron to @ IHU_Marseille yesterday: a place that brings together diagnosis, research and care.
Today, we can test up to 4000 samples per day. Our experience must serve the country. pic.twitter.com/ausmvgW5ET
Didier Raoult, very popular on social networks
"Didiar Raoult has distanced himself from the council but he has remained in contact with the president," says his friend Renaud Muselier, LR president of the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region. “Emmanuel Macron was able to realize during his stay in Marseille that he was not a charlatan who experiments in a rotten lab. He measured that his institute was world renowned, that he had results, and that beyond the contemptuous noises and Parisian ego, he was a nobelisable specialist ”.
The elected LR recalls in his own way that the scientific question quickly turned into public controversy, causing heated debates between supporters and detractors of the doctor. 59% of French people would also consider that the chloroquine-based protocol is an effective treatment against coronavirus (20% would think the opposite and 21% would have no opinion), according to the Ifop poll dated April 6 . A petition, brought in particular by former Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy, calling for urgent flexibility of the prescription possibilities for hydroxychloroquine at the same time collected more than 500,000 signatures.
"If it works, he can say that he heard it"
The iconoclast infectiologist, followed by more than 350,000 people on Twitter, has become very popular on social networks. Several videos of his speeches have been viewed over a million times on YouTube. A popularity that could also explain the interest of Emmanuel Macron. “59% of French people think that Raoult is right. Faced with such success, the president was intelligent, he went to see him, listened to him for a long time. This shows that he is reactive, lucid, "welcomes François Patriat, the patron of LREM senators. "He anticipates that his work may prove conclusive, and if it works, he can say that he heard it. But if it does not work, he will not have taken too much risk, because he remained very careful in his statements ",
Last week, the Elysée took care to clarify that the meeting did not represent "recognition" of the teacher's method. "You have to be very careful," said the head of state on Wednesday. Especially since Didier Raoult's latest results aroused new criticism from the medical world last Friday.
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Coronavirus: Raoult is a "great scientist", his biotherapy must be "tested", believes Macron
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- Covid 19
- Didier raoult
- President
- Coronavirus
- Emmanuel Macron
- Government